The concept of using a spear to capture fish for sport and food can be traced back thousands of years. For instance, the Greek God Neptune is frequently depicted holding a trident. Native American cultures also often utilized spears to hunt fish and other aquatic life.
Modern spearfishing can be traced back to the early 1900s when spearfishermen utilized swimming goggles to see underwater. Early spearguns were basic, though they shared many of the primary concepts of modern spearguns: a spear, a means for the user to aim the spear at a fish, a means for propelling the spear at a fish when desired and a means to fire the spear at the fish.
Over the past century, advancements in materials science, engineering and other improvements from extensive R&D within the spearfishing industry give us a speargun sharing many of the same features as the original spearguns, though greatly improved. Today's spearfishing industry is much more safety-conscious than that of its founders. An important feature of modern spearguns is the presence of what is colloquially referred to as a safety—a mechanism that prevents unwanted and/or accidental discharge of a spear. Speargun safeties are what this application predominantly focuses upon.
Safeties on modern spearguns generally consist of one of three designs. The first is a “tab” type mechanism, where a tab featured near the side of the trigger may be raised or lowered by a user's finger. When engaged, the speargun will not fire; when flipped up or down (depending on the exact design), the speargun will fire. The second is a “rotational” type mechanism, where a protrusion featured near the side of the trigger may be rotated clockwise or counterclockwise by a user's finger. When engaged, the speargun will not fire; when rotated clockwise or counterclockwise (depending on the exact design), the speargun will fire. The third is a “push bar” type, where a bar is able to protrude through the receiver of a speargun and be pushed from side to side by the user. When pushed to one side, the speargun will not fire; when pushed to the other side, the speargun will fire.
There are shortcomings in each design however. From a safety standpoint, it can be difficult for a user to determine whether the safety is engaged or not. Safeties common in the prior art have attempted to remedy this problem using a few well-intentioned means. More-common “solutions” include use of “S or F” to indicate safe or fire, use of images with one image crossed out and the use of red or another high visibility color to indicate the speargun is ready to fire. While each solution is indeed better than no indication, each solution has its own issues. For instance, red is a highly visible color on land, but red is the first color in the visible spectrum to disappear under water. What is bright red on land quickly turns dark brown underwater. Use of images can be confusion as well. Users are often left trying to remember if a crossed out image means the speargun is unable to fire at the target, or able to fire and kill a fish. Furthermore, refraction causes images seen underwater to appear to be a different size than they actually are, which could further lead to user confusion.
Another problem found in the prior art is that side-mounted safeties may require the user to turn the speargun to determine whether the safety engaged, possibly at an unintended target.
From a sporting standpoint, safeties found in the prior art may be difficult to disengage without momentarily losing track of the target with the muzzle of the speargun. Spearfishermen also frequently use wetsuits and wetsuits gloves. As a result, much dexterity is lost. Disengaging safeties found in the prior art may be difficult with bulky fingertips.
In addition to the aforementioned improvements on the safeties found in the prior art, the present invention is the first known to the inventor which allows for an easy retrofit onto the trigger mechanisms used in many common types of spearguns. Custom speargun builders could incorporate the present invention onto their existing speargun stocks.
Therefore, there is a need for a safety mechanism easily engaged/disengaged with bulky fingertips without losing track of a target, which is also easily discernable as to whether it is engaged or disengaged.
The inventor has performed a search of the prior art and believes the present invention is a new and useful invention for which patent protection is warranted.